My Beadwork Blog and Gallery

Beading is a bit of an obsession. My beadwork blog is home to my thoughts on pieces I am working on, techniques I am learning, and my beading inspirations. I live in Bournemouth, Dorset and am mum to two gorgeous young children. I volunteer at both school and toddler group, and work part-time in online ad production. I try to fit in as much beading here and there as I can, for both relaxation, and to stretch and expand my creative side. I've learnt a variety of textile crafts over the years, but have always loved jewellery-making. I enjoy wirework, but beadweaving and bead embroidery have proved to be my favourite mediums, and it is these types of beadwork that I always seem to come back to. I love the colour and feel of beads, planning new projects, learning new techniques and of course, bead shopping! I read a wide variety of beading magazines and books, and apart from the occasional workshop, am primarily self-taught.

Thursday, 16 December 2010

As usual I haven't managed to stick to one project! Everyday commitments have thwarted most beady activity, but I've got a couple of things to dip in and out of. I've started a Laura McCabe bracelet but had to stop that as more beads were needed as it didn't look quite right.......the spiral rope is still on the go.......and I received some more gorgeous cabachons from Rosebudlia. I endeavour to finish some of these things after Christmas, but here is a pendant I finished that was a weekend project....this colour scheme may become one of my favourites!

Thursday, 2 December 2010

I am getting through my spiral rope to go with my fabulous orange focal bead (see 'Lampwork Inspiration). I'm adding to it here and there when time allows so hopefully it should be finished in the not too distant future. I've found spiral ropes with same size or just 2 colours of beads work up quickly. This is going more slowly as the beads need to be selected differently on each loop so the sizes, colours and shapes both look and sit well together without being too regular. I experimented, and one larger bead per loop gave the spiral a more defined form than the completely random variety I started with, so I'm continuing with that. I just need to stay focused without straying towards cabachon work in the meantime!

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

These galleries are now up, although the wirework page will be updated with some more pieces when I have the photos through. There are several beadwork pieces that are 'in progress' which I will also put up shortly as they are still part of my learning process. Many thanks to Sue Rose of Rosebudlia for her interest in my blog! There will be a lot more cabachon work featuring her cabachons over the next few months - they are very inspiring!

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Life has got a bit hectic recently to say the least. My bead embroidery gallery is now live - check it out on the link on the right. My other pages on beadwork, chainmaille and wirework and of course projects in progress are coming very soon.

Sunday, 31 October 2010

I love these cabochons! They’re from Rosebudlia, and I was looking for something with both silver and gold on, found these and fell in love with them.
First I glued the cabochons to an Ultrasuede base. Although some beaders prefer to use Lacey’s stiff stuff as beading foundation, I personally prefer to use Ultrasuede. You can leave areas unbeaded for a different feel if you wish, and there is no need to colour the white base to match your beads. That said, I used grey ultrasuede on the front of this set, and on finishing it just didn’t look right, so I used black fabric pen on the edges this time, which I have handy for writing labels in school uniform!
I peyote stitched a bezel with delicas and size 15 seed beads, and then cut this out close to the stitching. I used thick interfacing fabric for my lining, cut slightly smaller than the pendant, and taped to the ultrasuede with double sided tape. I then used black ultrasuede as a backing.
Size 11 seeds were used for the brick stitched edging and herringone stitch bail. Miyuki drops finish the edging off. Using these in this fashion showed that some of these differed in shape, with some little and fat and some more tapered, and it is this that makes their spacing look a little irregular on the pendant before I worked out what it was causing it. I then made the earrings in the same way, but was more careful to select even shaped drops for the edging.
I thoroughly enjoyed this project, and the cabochons were lovely to work with, which is just as well as I ordered quite a lot of them in different sizes and patterns! Expect to see a lot more of these in the coming months. Now onto my project with my lovely Cilla bead!

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

I received this in the post this morning from my very talented lampworking friend Helen Wyatt! She is a member of the FHF Team on Etsy and you can find her here.﻿ My favourite colour is orange and this just leapt out at me, but it also has hints of pink, purple, peach and cream - a real festival of colour. Even though I've read lampworking tutorials I just can't quite get my head round how this was designed and made!

I hope I can do this justice, I have a bead mix from Stitchncraft which has just been waiting in my stash for the right project. At the moment I am contemplating a spiral or textured rope with Cilla as the focal dangle with some mixed bead and crystal fringe. I am promising myself I have to finish one project before starting another, which I find hard sometimes, particularly with bigger projects, so this is just the inspiration I need.